Happy Easter with lots of pictures!

This week sure has a busy Spring Break! Preparing for Easter fun, and catching up on things around the house has been our fun. And, let me just start off by saying that my kids sure do know how to exercise their sleeping in during spring break abilities. I don't think there was a single day ANY of the three girls were up before nine. There were some days where they slept until 10. Yesssss! My kids rock. I HATE mornings! We made a trip to the Grove to go to Barnes and Noble. My friend, and teacher that I did my teaching internship with like 7 years ago, sent them a gift card for being such great big sisters. They both immediately spotted a Pete the Cat book and both about had heart attacks. They LOVE Pete the Cat. They also picked out a couple of Pinkalicious easy reader books and a Peter Rabbit board book for Ella. They love books and read all the time!

Ella is 3.5 months old. Crazy. She's really working hard on holding her head up while laying on her tummy. She's a pro at keeping it stable while being held upright and hardly bobbles at all, but now, when she's propped up on her elbows she gets it sorta up there and will look around for a bit. Then, all at once she will just plop it down. She loves to coo and smile. She's such a ham. She also loves looking at herself in the mirror or through the camera on the phone.

Alyse, had some issues this past week. Poor babe has broke out in hives off an on. I'm not quite sure what has caused them as she hasn't been anywhere new nor had any new foods. The first set I noticed were on her ankle and I just thought maybe an army of ants got her having no experience with hives. Then, the next morning those were completely gone and a new patch was on her back under her armpit. I thought those surely weren't ant bites so I took a picture and sent it to my mom who suggested probably hives. That patch left, then another patch on the back of her leg showed up. They had been coming and going all week. I called the pediatrician and they just told me to make sure they didn't turn purple or that she didn't run a fever and to just give benadryl. The benadryl generally took care of them. Luckily, she wasn't bothered by them.

Decortaing cookies!

The girls were given an Easter cookie decorating kit from Nana Trish. They had so much fun adding icing, sprinkles, and candies to the cookies. Both of the girls loves arts and crafts type activities. They get so excited when we get to do these sorts of things. Alyse was quite sprinkle happy and Addi was of course the diligent worker. They also dyed their Easter eggs which was fun too. Next year, I need to remember to buy two kits. I always tend to forget how much of "do-it-yourselfers" they both are which made it sort of difficult trying to get them to work together with limited supplies. I can't even imagine how crazy the whole process will be when Ella is ready to help!

Coloring eggs!

Saturday afternoon, we went down the egg hunt down by the lake. Alyse was in the 0-2 year old group and had to have an adult walk with her. So, she went in and got a good helping of eggs. Addisyn was in the 3-4 year old group, where she had to go in by herself. Well, she decided that she was going to be nervous over it. Doug had hyped up the golden egg, and I think it may have put too much pressure on her, plus she was just nervous overall with that many people. She's going to take after me and not have the competitive gene in her. She later told us that she was "nervous and that she had to quit the game." What are we going to do with her? She only ended up with like 5 eggs.


Easter morning was exciting. I just love how happy these girls are. Sure, I know the religious meanings of holidays, but I just love the magic of it all through a child's eyes. They only believe for so long, and being on this side of it all, as a parent, just brings back the specialness of it all. Alyse was the first up and saw the baskets out so Doug sent her to go wake Addi up. She went running down the hall slammed Addi's door opening and started yelling that the Bunny had been here. Next thing we heard was Addisyn jumping out of her bed and running down the hallway. They started looking in their baskets and then quickly realized that the Bunny had hidden the eggs that they had colored. They then stopped with the baskets and it was a race to hunt down all the eggs from the "tricky bunny" as Addi called him. The bunny hid 26 eggs and only 25 of them were found. Not quite sure what happened to that last one. If Sadie got it I'm sure there would be some shell left over. Or, there would be more than one missing, dogs don't just eat one "snack" and leave the rest.

After spending the morning at home, we were out to Mema's for lunch and an Easter egg hunt. This was much more successful than the one by the lake. They were both hunting down the eggs and got some yummy candies and even a little bit of money. After Mema's we went out to mom and dad's for dinner. Doug spent the morning smoking some pork roasts, so we took that over there. All in all, it was just good to celebrate and spend time with the family.



One more bit of exciting news! ALYSE POOPED ON THE POTTY!!!! EEEK! First time ever. She's been fighting it, but finally did it today, Easter, at mom and dad's. She was quite proud of herself. Step in the right direction. Maybe she will be in big girl panties soon! We'll see if it trends or not ;)

Easter 2013: Ella's First!

Time flies when you're having fun!

Ella is getting "Doc McStuffin-ed!"

Sitting here cuddling little Ella on a Sunday night, after a great Sunday Funday, I realized it has been quite while since I've been on the blog. No one has reached any milestones and things have been pretty calm in these parts. So I'll scrape from the bottom of the pool here for a quick update!

Ella's 3 months old!

First, Friday night I had my first night out sans kiddos post Ella (aside quick trips to the grocery store or a fast run to target). Definitely not a wild night out on the town, just a trip to the movie theater... exhilarating, I know! But, it was a MUCH needed time out of the house not having to worry about a hungry baby, refereeing a cat fight, or changing a diaper. Lisa and I went to go see Oz the Great and Powerful. While I know the reviews weren't all that hot, I could not neglect the prequel of my childhood's favorite film. And, apparently it doesn't take much to entertain me, because I actually really liked it and glad that I had to chance to go and see it. Now, I need to decide what to do on my next "night out." Oh! While out I was worried a tad over Ella having to take a bottle (I've been working on a small stash of milk in the freezer) but it turned out she didn't even need one! Fed her before I left and she lasted the whole time! Lucky for her, Doug, and me!!

Second, this past week I've realized that Alyse is a secret pooper. I've caught her recently going into private areas to do her business on her own (in her diaper/pull-up). A couple of times I accidentally walked in on her not knowing what was happening. When that happens, she screams "get out mommy! I going poppies. Just leave me alone!" It cracks me up laughing everytime. The kid refuses to poop in the potty.

Third, Addisyn was talking to me today and said that me, her, and Alyse all like boys. So I asked if daddy like boys. Her response was "no, daddies like mommies." Cute. In target the other day, she told me that we just walked by a boy that liked her. That child's mother overheard and laughed. Totally did not know the boy thing started so early!

Fourth! How could I forget?!? Last Sunday, we had Ella's baptism. While it went smoothly for us, the overall ceremony was a madhouse! There were like 8 kids being baptized and a couple of the kids had the whole family there and then some. The Deacon performing it made the comment that in the twenty something years he's been doing this that he has never seen such a turnout. He also commented that it would be organized chaos, and that hit the nail on the head. Ella did perfectly and was just a tad startled by the water. It was a different Deacon from who baptized the two older girls and he used a lot more water! Ella did shed a tear though! Afterwards, we went to Mimi's Cafe for a late lunch with everyone and it was really nice.

Addi and Lysie with their great-grear grandmother

And, for today's events we started off with breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Alyse threw a screaming fit because she dropped a fork on the ground and wanted that specific fork back. Tries giving her mine, scream. Got a new one, scream. So I go to pick her up to walk outside and she screams bloody murder and almost silenced the whole restaurant on a busy Sunday morning. That was fun. Then, it was to celebrate my great grandmother's 98th birthday and my baby twin cousins' first birthdays. Finally, rounding out the night with grilling wings at my parents. Whew.

So what I thought would be a quick update turned into a not so quick one. Oops!

Easter next week! :)